bitlink

3.5 Design Challenge!

• Introduction

  In this module we've learned how to detect and monitor soil moisture, how to use the MakeCode console to view our data, how to detect humidity, temperature, and light, how to daisy-chain LEDs, how to track and search our data with arrays, and we've built a plant waterer, an environment sensor, and an animal counter!

  In this lesson you will put all of this knowledge to the test in a new design challenge.
  
• New Concept
  What is a Smart Farm?
  • What are some positives and negatives of making your farm smarter?
    
  • How can technology help our farms to use sustainable practices and reuse resources and waste?
    
  • How can technology help farmers to plant, harvest, and prepare their farms more efficiently?
    
  • Could having more smart farms reduce the need to use chemicals in the process of our food production?
    If so, do you have any ideas of how technology could help to accomplish this?
    
  • Do you have any ideas of how renewable energies such as wind power, solar power, and/or hydro power could be used in a smart farm system to more efficiently control energy consumption on farms?
• Design Challenge
  Design a Smart Farm

  
  
  You have been tasked with designing an ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) Smart Farm system. You must work collaboratively with others in order to identify a real-world problem to be solved and then design a real-world solution to solve that problem.

  • You must work in a group of approximately 6 people and have 3 micro:bit kits to use for project.
    
  • Each group member must make meaningful contributions towards the group design process and final group design result.

  Required Devices

  • You will have 3 Bitlink kits to use for the challenge.
    This will mean that your group will have access to 3 micro:bits, 3 sensor:bits and 3 duplicates of each of the included sensors, devices and cables.

  Suggested Blocks

  • You must use your current knowledge of the micro:bit and block-based coding with MakeCode to put purposeful and meaningful contributions towards this challenge.
• Problems and Scenarios

  Work in your group to design your own problem or issue that needs solving on a Smart Farm.
  If you are stuck for ideas, here are some suggestions.

  Smart Plant Monitoring:

  Use micro:bits to monitor a range of conditions relating to the growth of plants, such as:

  • Whether the soil is wet or dry.
  • Whether the environment is too hot or too cold.
  • Whether the humidity is too high or too low.
  • Whether the plant is getting enough light.

  Explore some different ways that you might be able to use this data that you're collecting. For example:

  • Can you build automatic systems that help to improve conditions for the plant when sub-optimal conditions are detected (such as turning on a light when it's dark, or providing water when it's dry)?
  • Could you build a remote monitoring system that uses the radio to communicate information about the plant to another micro:bit in another room?

  Smart Animal Feeding Station:

  Use micro:bits to build a smart animal feeding station, which keeps track of which animals visit it and for how long.

  • Detect when an animal is close to the feeding station.
  • Keep track of how long each animal is at the feeding station.
  • Use a lid to close the feeding station when there are no animals nearby, but open it when an animal with a tracker approaches.

  Think about other things you could do to expand on this idea. For example:

  • You could think about setting a limit for how much each animal can eat by only opening the feeding station for a certain amount of time for each animal each day.
  • You could think about using the radio to communicate key information back to the farm house, so the farmer can keep track of how things are going without needing to visit the feeding station in person.
  • You could think about building some sort of system to alert the farmer when the feeding station is likely to be getting empty, so that they know to go and refill it.
  • You could build an alert system for when a particular animal hasn't visited the feeding station in a long time. This might mean that the animal is sick or has escaped the paddock.

  Smart Scarecrow Defence System
  
  When a selected plant detects any of the following events:

  • Movement that is in close-proximity around the plant.
  • The plant stem/trunk twitching or shaking.
  • The plant’s light source is blocked for longer than a specified time.

  Then, a smart scarecrow activates and performs some or all of the following actions:

  • Plays a loud alarm sound.
  • Spins a fan.
  • Waves its arms.
  • Sends a radio message to alert the farmer.
• Conclusion

  You've reached the end of Module 3! In this module we've built an automatic plant waterer, an environment sensor, an animal counter, and designed our own Smart Farm solutions.

  The next module is all about Smart Cities. You'll learn how to create a traffic sensor, an automatic street light, a traffic light, and how we can use technology to assist emergency services.